2024-04-24 12:38:24
”
data-script=”https://static.lefigaro.fr/widget-video/short-ttl/video/index.js”
>
Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov has been placed in preventive detention for at least two months, pending trial. He was the subject of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation created by Alexeï Navalny.
Russian justice on Wednesday placed in pre-trial detention a Deputy Minister of Defense, Timur Ivanov, arrested for corruption and whose lifestyle had been denounced in 2022 in an investigation by the organization of opponent Alexeï Navalny. This is a rare case of arrest and serious legal proceedings at the highest level of the Russian military apparatus, which comes at a time when the conflict with Ukraine is raging and when the government has increased spending tenfold. for the army.
The press service of the Moscow courts announced that Timur Ivanov, aged 48 and in his post since 2016, was placed in pre-trial detention for at least two months, until June 23, while awaiting his trial. He is charged with “large-scale bribe-taking”, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison. The same charges were brought once morest an alleged accomplice, Sergei Borodin, also placed in pre-trial detention.
Ivanov appeared at his hearing in a Moscow court on Wednesday in military uniform, standing straight in the glass cage reserved for detainees, we can see in images released by the Russian justice system. According to an anonymous security source cited by the TASS news agency, he will be in pre-trial detention in Lefortovo, a prison in the Russian capital administered by the Russian security services (FSB). This is also where he is detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich.
“A lot of gossip is circulating at the moment”
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who according to the opposition has already gone on vacation in the past with Ivanov, called not to fall into “conjectures” around this matter. “There’s a lot of gossip going around these days. You have to turn to official information. An investigation is underway”he evaded.
Timur Ivanov was responsible for construction within the Ministry of Defense, particularly work in military installations. According to investigators, he was part of a corruption system as part of “carrying out contractual and subcontracting work for the needs of the Ministry of Defence.”
Luxurious lifestyle
At the end of 2022, Ivanov was the subject of an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and banned in Russia for “extremism”. According to this investigation, the deputy minister had supervised and profited from construction projects in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port conquered, following being ravaged, by the Russian army in spring 2022 following a merciless siege. The Russian authorities did not react to these revelations.
Timur Ivanov’s ex-wife, Svetlana Ivanova, was a wealthy elite figure and, according to the investigation, some of her spending on luxury goods was paid for by companies later involved in the reconstruction of Mariupol. In the investigations of Alexeï Navalny’s organization, the Kremlin spokesperson himself appeared in alleged images of a vacation in 2021 with the Ivanov couple, where he appeared to appear dancing during a small ceremony, disguised as bear.
Since October 2022, Timur Ivanov has been sanctioned by the European Union as a senior official in the Ministry of Defense. In Alexeï Navalny’s investigation, it is claimed that he divorced to allow his wife to circumvent these sanctions. The organization of this opponent who died in prison earlier this year has carried out multiple investigations of this type, accusing the highest state officials of corruption, including Vladimir Putin. She had notably published investigations into a sumptuous palace on the shores of the Black Sea supposed to belong to the Russian president, who, faced with the uproar caused, had to deny these allegations in person.
In 2019, Forbes Russia magazine named Timur Ivanov as one of the richest members of the Russian security apparatus in his country. According to Forbes, this graduate in mathematics and cybernetics spent a large part of his career in the field of the atomic industry and joined the team of Sergei Shoigu, when he was the governor of the Moscow region. He then followed, once more according to Forbes, Choïgu following his appointment as Minister of Defense, which he still holds today.
1713969625
#senior #army #official #prosecuted #corruption
